BJP president Rajnath Singh’s new team has signalled the party patriarch LK Advani’s waning influence in the organisation as much as the growing clout of Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi.

NEW DELHI: BJP president Rajnath Singh's new team has signalled the party patriarch LK Advani's waning influence in the organisation as much as the growing clout of Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi .

That Advani failed to have his way is evident from the decision not to induct Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan into the party's parliamentary board along with Modi.

Moreover, Advani did not succeed in even stalling the inclusion of Dharmendra Pradhan and JP Nadda as general secretaries on the grounds of the political challenges in Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh. Though the party president did pay Advani a visit after finalising the team, it is clear that the 85-yearold leader has lost his veto power in the organisation that he is credited with having strengthened as its original Hindutva mascot.

The signs of political fade-out have come nearly eight years after he fell out with the party's ideological mentor, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, for calling Pakistan's founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah a secular person. His persistent campaign against the former party president Nitin Gadkari, who was hand-picked by the Sangh, only added to the growing animosity.

Rajnath Singh, who was instrumental in Modi's exit from the parliamentary board six years ago, said he had taken the decision on the basis of the information he received at the time. "Now, after rethinking I have come to the conclusion that India's most popular chief minister should be given a place in the parliamentary board...So, after a lot of thinking, I have taken this decision to induct Modi," Singh said in Aurangabad on Monday.

Party leaders said Singh had kept in mind the concerns of all leaders while forming the new team, 80% of whose 76 members are below the age of 60. "A united BJP is reflected in the team because it has accommodated and included all regions, social groups, given larger representation to women and is basically based on merit," said party spokesman Prakash Javadekar.

Sociologist Dipankar Gupta questioned the wisdom of Modi's possible projection as the BJP-led coalition's prime ministerial candidate. "Modi is the best they can have as a political party. He is a charismatic, decisive leader who will make the BJP a party with a difference. But the question still remains whether with Modi there can be a coalition around the BJP. Is he the right kind of person to lead a coalition?" Gupta asked, adding, "In a coalition you don't need the most charismatic person but the least offensive."

However, senior party leaders familiar with the matter say that Modi is likely to head the campaign committee that the BJP is expected to form after the Karnataka elections in May.